


loverless nights

by booksandbalks



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Based on a song, Fluff, M/M, Modern AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-22
Updated: 2013-02-22
Packaged: 2017-12-03 04:58:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/694421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/booksandbalks/pseuds/booksandbalks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jehan takes a day trip and leaves Courfeyrac to fend for himself. Loosely based on the song 'Sunday' by Hurts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	loverless nights

Courfeyrac wakes up and he rubs at his eyes and cracks his ankles and toes. He pulls their floral quilt over himself to block out the sun and kicks aimlessly at the (empty) space to his right and he manages to croak out a sleep devoured “Jehan, it’s too bright,” and, _oh_.

Sunday. Right. Courfeyrac kind of whines and rolls over into Jehan’s messed up sheets and tucks his face in between the pillows. They’ve gone almost cold by now and he can smell the last remaining traces of whatever flower they had forgotten to take out of Jehan’s braid the night before. There is something there, though, some kind of warmth and Courfeyrac feels around, finding some fuzzy ball at the very top of the bed. Theo always did prefer Jehan’s side.

 _Sunday_ , Courfeyrac thinks. It is around eight, he would guess, which means that Jehan had left almost two hours ago. Courfeyrac isn’t even sure what he had to do this time, just that he was going out of the city with his family and he wouldn’t be back until late, until Monday maybe, and that ”yes, mon amour, I’ll miss you.” That and, as much as Courfeyrac wants to forget, they might have had some sort of disagreement before going to bed and, well, he felt absolutely terrible.

Courfeyrac rolls back over and pokes his head out of the blanket cocoon and reaches blindly for his phone, unlocking it to notice that Jehan had already left him a message.

**from: jehan (06:17)**

**hello I left about 5 minutes ago and I already want to get back into bed with you. go look in the oven.**

Courfeyrac allows himself only one second of worry that the message sounds a little too formal before almost literally rolling off of the bed and onto the floor. The wood is rough under his bare feet. The linoleum in the little kitchen is smooth and cold and he thinks that Jehan must have swept it before he left. Before he gets to open the oven, he sees the piece of paper held to the refrigerator, alphabet magnets spelling out ‘Courf’ to hold it in place.

The handwriting is distinctly Jehan and if Courfeyrac has all of the curves and lines memorized, well.

_C –_

_good morning (it better be morning)! first, there are pancakes in the oven. warm them up before you eat them or else you’ll complain to Theo and he will claw at your face again. second, please don’t leave the flat without checking your hair because it looked terribly unruly when I kissed you goodbye._

_I’m sorry about what happened last night. my heart is in utter shambles when I think back on it and I hope you can forgive me. I wish more than anything that you could be with me right now and you know that one day it will be the time (you do know that, don’t you?). your cowardly boyfriend will be brave in due time, he promises._

_anyways, I love you more than anything and you’re positively radiant._

_cuddle with Theo (and feed him!!!)_

–        _J_

Courfeyrac unwillingly runs a hand through his hair and smiles what he is sure is a ridiculously obnoxious smile but there isn’t anyone to see so, really, there’s no harm. He reads over the words again and maybe one more time before he goes to the oven and looks inside. He almost _giggles_ at the sight of the heart-shaped pancakes. The microwave has a sticky note stuck to the front and _that_ handwriting is there again.

_But wait for me,_

_Keep me for your sweetness._

_I will give you too_

_A rose._

The pancakes are forgotten and Courfeyrac just about sprints back into their bedroom to his phone.

**to: Jehan (08:27)**

**you absolutely amaze me xxxxxxxxx**

**to: Jehan (08:28)**

**I am so in love with you and I just need you back with me right now**

**to: Jehan (08:30)**

**and if there was anything to forgive you for, I would forgive you a thousand times over. I was wrong and I was being selfish and I feel like shit and I just want to kiss you and hold you and tell you how beautiful you are to me so please come home soon okay???**

-

13:41 and Courfeyrac is sure he is about to cry. He thinks that it is kind of sick that he has the capacity to miss someone as much as he misses Jehan. He thinks that maybe he should call Joly and see if that is something he should be worried about but after a few seconds of contemplation he decides that that would only create some sort of inevitable panic and he really doesn’t need Joly to overreact or anything. Instead, he continues to pet Theo. Their kitten is sprawled out across Courfeyrac’s chest and he takes a picture and immediately sends it off to Jehan with a caption of **no claws on my face yet :) :) :)**.

He most certainly does not check his phone obsessively for the next ten minutes.

-

Courfeyrac is asleep when his phone goes off beside his ear. The alert says that it is 15:26 and that he has a new message from Jehan.

**from: Jehan (15:26)**

**it is beautiful here and you are ravishing and Theo looks happy. I am happy. do you think I should tell my parents about you? x**

His breath kind of catches in his throat. To Jehan’s parents, Courfeyrac was nothing but a roommate. It was all quite complicated, really, but Jehan had been so brilliantly radiant when he had told them that he was gay and when they didn’t share in that radiance, things had fallen apart.

**to: Jehan (15:28)**

**I can’t make that choice for you and you know that but I support you no matter what. I almost called Joly I miss you so much.**

Courfeyrac doesn’t let himself get his hopes up. Instead, he orders takeaway Chinese and watches some low budget science fiction film, Theo curled snuggly against his side.

-

At 17:33, Courfeyrac gets his old guitar out of the closet in their bedroom and plays. It’s been a while, months, since he has curved his fingers to press down on the strings and made some kind of music. Jehan missed it, though he never came right out and said it, and Courfeyrac  knows how Jehan’s whole attitude changes when he hears Courfeyrac play him a song (almost like how it changes when he writes and reads and recites).

He sends Jehan a text to let his phone go to voicemail and then he calls, waits for the prompt. The song that he plays isn’t particularly tricky but he knows that it is one of Jehan’s favorites and he can see the way that Jehan would dance around the room to the music. When he’s done playing, Theo jumps onto the couch with him and starts pawing at the guitar, making the strings squeak.

**to: Jehan (17:46)**

**teaching Theo how to play.. he is a natural**

**-**

Courfeyrac sighs and puts his empty bowl in the sink. Jehan would be absolutely devastated that he had had their favorite ice cream without sharing but, Courfeyrac convinces himself, that is just the price to pay for leaving for an entire day. It is 22:05 and he swears he is close to withering away. He’s turned the television off and his eyes hurt from squinting at Jehan’s poetry books and Grantaire is too busy with Enjolras to bring him any wine. Utter rubbish, he thinks.

“What do you say, Theo?” Courfeyrac scratches him behind the ears.

Theo purrs in response, as kittens do, and jumps off of the counter. Courfeyrac follows him to the bedroom and watches as he curls up where Jehan’s head normally is.

“That means I get to cuddle with you, right?”

He strips down to nothing and finds a pair of Jehan’s flower-printed shorts and they are a little snug but he is willing to risk it. The bed is warm but far too empty and little Theo does his best but it just isn’t the same.

Regardless, he falls asleep, with flowers and braids and Jehan’s voice trapped inside of his mind.

-

When Courfeyrac feels the bed dip at 02:14, he thinks he is going to die. He stops breathing and keeps his eyes tightly shut, cursing internally at whoever would choose to break into their flat and kill him on this of all nights. When the intruder pokes him in the side and swings one leg over his waist and licks a stripe up his cheek, well, isn’t that just brilliant?

“Why aren’t you breathing?” Jehan’s whisper is less concern and more amusement and Courfeyrac opens one eye just a bit, enough to see his boyfriend above him, blurry and distorted.

“Why aren’t you a murderer?” Courfeyrac reaches up and pulls his fingers through Jehan’s hair, loose and dangling around his shoulders.

Jehan laughs and it is sunshine and coming home again and he drops his head and ghosts his lips up Courfeyrac’s bare chest, lets them linger against his neck.

“I didn’t tell them,” Jehan admits. He doesn’t let his eyes meet Courfeyrac’s, keeps them safe under their lashes.

“I’m terribly in love with you, do you know that?” Courfeyrac lifts Jehan’s head. “You’re the bravest person I’ve ever met,” and the thing is, he actually means it, with everything he has.

Jehan kisses him and it is like he is pressing poetry into Courfeyrac’s lips and it is like he is declaring his love with every little breath that he exhales between them. His arms are trembling and Courfeyrac wraps his hand around where he knows there are flowers painted over fragile skin and rubs with his thumb. Theo meows from next to the bed and Jehan smiles against Courfeyrac’s mouth.

“Why do I ever leave?”

Jehan leans over and picks up Theo, gets under the blankets and wraps his legs around Courfeyrac’s. He hums a little and rests his head against Courfeyrac’s shoulder, eyes infinite and sure.

“Because then you can come back to where you belong.”

**Author's Note:**

> The poetry excerpt that Jehan wrote and put on the microwave is from 'Absence' by Pablo Neruda.
> 
> Photoset based on this story can be found here: http://anditsings.tumblr.com/post/43686216612/loverless-nights-they-seem-so-long-jehan-goes


End file.
